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TLWIR 38: Google Trumps Oracle: What Does This Mean for Patent Litigation?

Oracle Corporation of America just suffered a massive defeat at the hands of Google in its patent infringement lawsuit. A California jury decided that Google did NOT infringe on Oracle’s Java patents with its ubiquitous Android operating system. This decision has a significant impact on the future on the of Free Software. After this decision, will anyone dare try to shake down a FOSS-based company again?

The image of Mike Tyson struggling to get up in that fight after being knocked down for the first time in his career was all that I could think about when I saw the news footage of Oracle executives confidently swaggering in to the court proceedings against Google. I thought to myself: “they are extremely confident, but if they lose this fight, it WILL be one of the most massive upsets in history”.